Vanda takes bigger loss on sleep drug development

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Vanda Pharmaceuticals Inc. said Tuesday that it took a wider fourth-quarter loss as it spent more money to develop an experimental sleep-disorder drug, and revenue from a schizophrenia drug slipped.

Vanda is developing a drug called tasimelteon as a treatment for non-24-hour disorder, a rare disorder that affects people who are totally blind. Patients have difficulty synchronizing their bodies with the 24-hour cycle because they can't detect light. Vanda said the drug met its goals in one late-stage trial in December and in a second study in January. It plans to file for marketing approval of tasimelteon in the middle of 2013.

The company also studied tasimelteon as a treatment for depression, but said in January that it had failed in a clinical trial and stopped research in that indication.

In the fourth quarter Vanda lost $6.4 million, or 23 cents per share. A year ago it took a smaller loss of $5.5 million, or 20 cents per share. Revenue slipped to $7.9 million from $8.4 million.

Analysts were expecting a loss of 22 cents per share on $8.6 million in revenue, according to FactSet.

Vanda gets royalty payments on sales of the schizophrenia drug Fanapt, which is marketed by Swiss drugmaker Novartis AG. It said those payments decreased to $1.2 million from $1.6 million in the latest quarter. Fanapt prescriptions rose 1 percent to 38,200, although they decreased compared to the third quarter of 2012.

Vanda lost $27.7 million, or 98 cents per share, in 2012 after losing $9.8 million, or 35 cents per share, in 2011. Revenue rose to $32.7 million from $21.3 million.